It’s a 4-speed brushless impact driver, plus it has an assist mode that drives screws at low speed until tightening begins, to help avoid cam-out and cross-threading, and a tightening mode that finishes fasteners at slower speeds to help prevent damage to fasteners and work materials.

The tightening mode is said to allow for fastener tigthening of self-drilling screws, and in past conversations with Makita, we talked about how this mode is great for certain work, such as installing solar panels.

The XDT12Z is incredibly compact, but not puny – it tops out at 1550 in-lbs of torque.

Price: $135 after discount, with the lower price appearing at checkout

14 Comments

Of the Top-3, Makita may be a bit of an underappreciated brand. Compared to Dewalt and Milwaukee who seemed to be locked in a head to head competitive battle – with annual promotions, media events and so on, Makita seems to hide their candle under a bucket. We had one business that for quite a few years – had almost exclusively relied on Makita 18V LXT cordless. I don’t think that we were any the worse for having standardized on this platform. But we did buy some Dewalt 36Vcircular saws for work up on the roof – since Makita was slow to step-up in this category.

At 1550 in. That is far behind Dewalt 1825 and Milwaukee 1800..Rigid is 2000plus….it just doesn’t hold up against the big two….innovative company but sometimes lag behind in many areas..sds, impact wrench,etc.

These specs are completely not accurate. A look at a few of the head to head tests online put Makita in the front for speed and torque even though the numbers should of made them middle to last. I have the middle of the line Makita that has the same torque rating and it is very fast and equal with the Milwaukee and Dewalts I have compared to and used. I would say that their top speed is almost too fast as it causes hard starts on a screw from the fast start up and slippage in the screw head occurs if not enough pressure is kept on the screw head.

Numbers are just that.
My Makita 12v Impact driver, which is now 10 years old drives better and last longer on a charge than either of my Ridgid 18v Impacts that are only a couple years old. A few years back, my Makita batteries were toast, figured I would not invest in batteries for an obsolete platform, got into Ridgid 18v, they do not impress nor do they last long on a charge … it was so bad, that I had my 10yr old Makita batteries refurbished … and I had some $$$ explaining to do to my wife.

Sorry but you don’t need a lot of torque to screw in deck screws in such which is the design of these impact drivers. If you looking for more torque to remove your lugs in such Makita makes plenty of impact wrenches for that purpose. Really dislike when people believe torque alone is end all.

Ridiculous argument. If Ridgid is all that, then how come they haven’t won ANY impact-driver shoot-outs across multiple brands and tool websites/YouTube channels? They’re not even close to being in Makita’s league when it comes to power tools.

I don’t see any of the specialty tools on sale here, but I love Makita for the tools neither DeWalt nor Milwaukee make. Like 12″ planer, 4″ x 24″ sander, chain mortiser, etc. If I ever build my own home, these are the tools I’ll need.

Yep – when we got into timber framing (it was a flash in the pan in our area) we looked at gearing up with Mafell tools – but could not justify the price based on the first few jobs. We’d try to amortize small capital tools within 3 years. We ended up with a Makita beam saw, 2 Makita planes, their wheel sander and their chain mortiser. Way cheaper than the Mafell equivalent, Maybe not as good as the Mafell tools but the timber framing work sort of dwindled down to a trickle and the Makita tools were paid off on the first batch of jobs.

I would totally buy this if I hadn’t already bought XDT14Z – a (younger/older?) sibling with 3 speed instead of 4. I assume the XDT12Z to be better judging by the price.

Having used the DeWalt DCF887 Impact Driver with its higher torque rating on paper, the Makita felt just as powerful. Three weeks of kitchen remodeling and building the garage workshop using the old kitchen cabinets and the Makita XDT14Z was up to every task and hadn’t let me down yet. Speed 1 and 2 are just about right, speed 3 which is the highest and fastest was an overkill for what I do. I like its compactness which helps with working in tight spaces – especially so with kitchen cabinets which requires screwing from the inside out. I had to fit the remodel around my 9-5 job and after three weeks of it what impressed me the most with the Makita is the 5Ah battery is still on it’s first charge with one bar left!

Ray, I was very impressed as well. I “was” a Milwaukee guy and have used my buddy’s DeWalt but the Makita, at least for me, was smooth and plenty of power. The compact size is the right balance and weight when working upside down. You are right about the charge, that 5Ah is no joke, it lasts quite awhile, even past the run-time that Makita had advertised. I bought the combo kit with the router and reciprocating saw along with the drill/impact driver which came with the Makita XDT14Z. So I am in the same boat as you, the XDT12Z looks awesome and it’s a great deal but the XDT14Z works great for what I am doing as a homeowner and DIYer.